The invention relates to a roller coaster system with a passenger carriage mounted on the free end of a jib rotating and driven about a horizontal axis and movable therewith, a gear wheel secured on the jib and concentric with the axis being driven by a pinion.
In the roller coaster of this type known from U.S. Pat. No. 1,987,004, an electromotor is provided whose drive pinion cooperates with the gear wheel secured on a shaft carrying the jib. In this known roller coaster system, the jib is extended past this drive shaft and carries on its end opposite the passenger carriage a compensating weight the magnitude of which can be modified by variable water charge.
In particular, when no counterweight is provided for compensating all or a portion of the weight of the passenger carriage (for example only the empty weight) whereby the travel performance is approximated to that of a swing--in particular a somersault swing--great forces must be transmitted from the motor drive to the gear wheel, since the diameter ratio between jib and gear wheel is very great. This also applies when the passenger carriage is to be accelerated rapidly into its circular movement without build-up of vibrations. The known device for transmitting the driving power of the motor to the gear wheel would require that the width of the teeth be so great that as a rule a practical execution is impossible.
It is therefore the object of the invention to impel a jib, which is heavily and particularly also eccentrically weighted and rotatable about an axis, in the area of the axis and to provide the required high torque via a gear wheel drive of acceptable dimensions.